


This Is My Pledge

by PorcelainBlue



Category: Juuni Kokki | Twelve Kingdoms, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 07:35:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1337275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PorcelainBlue/pseuds/PorcelainBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A 12 Kingdoms crossover Fic.</p><p>Eren is a kirin of a dying Kingdom, whose previous King stepped off the Way and lost the mandate of heaven so badly that demons are prowling in from all corners of the land. He searches and wanders the ravaged Kingdom and meets a Levi, short, angry militia leader, who takes him in and takes care of him, thinking that his illness (blood on the streets, blood everywhere) is due to a lack of food or some other ailment.</p><p>But Eren knows, knows that this is the King.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Is My Pledge

The summer solstice came to Hohzan, and Eren stared out over the carved wood banisters at the endless throngs of people ascending the mountain. 

  
“Taiho, must you frown so?” asked Teyei, the oracle who was accompanying him this morning. Eren turned to face her, kind face uncharacteristically fierce. “Teyei, I don’t want to choose another King.” 

 

Eyes widening, Teyei looked around, gesturing to the Kirin to keep his voice down. Heavens above, how could a Kirin say that? “Taiho, you were meant to choose a King - it is your duty! If you were to abandon it, what would happen to the people of your Kingdom? When no King sits upon the throne, the land is thrown into chaos. You know that!” 

Eren didn’t answer Teyei’s chiding, but he knew all that. He knew his kingdom was dying, had been dying since the previous King stepped off the Way and lost the Mandate of Heaven - Eren had fallen ill, so ill that the court was thrown into dissarray, whispers and rumours of the _sitsudou (the losing of the way)_ afflicting the kirin. He had loved the previous King, but he had only grown cruel and complacent on his throne. The only love left within him was for Eren, and when the King saw that Eren would die, he ascended the mountain and abdicated the throne, thereby killing himself and saving Eren’s life. 

Demons were prowling in from all corners of the land, and natural disasters were a common occurrence, with an empty throne. Eren resents Kings, knows that the power they hold is easily corrupted, even with the most kind and well-meaning of souls. He could not bring himself to sit here, going through thousands of hopefuls, all ascending the mountain in hopes of becoming King.

 

_‘We don’t need another King to bring us to ruin,_ ’ he thought bitterly. 

 

* * *

 

Twitchy and restless, Eren wandered the halls of Bush-Jar Palace, the nostalgia of his childhood spent here unable to soothe his frazzled nerves. 

  
“Taiho! It is time to meet the people, shall we go?” Eren looked up to see Teiyei hurrying towards him, and he took a step back. 

“I’m going Teiyei, I can’t be here anymore. There are no Kings here that can make me stay!” He moved, and despite the oracle reaching out to him, he was gone, for nothing could catch a Kirin riding upon the wind. Teiyei looked up at the sky in shock, and hurried to gather the remaining oracles, hoping to minimise the damage of the kirin’s disappearance as much as possible. 

 

* * *

 

Eren wanders his ravaged Kingdom in peasants clothing he found lying in an abandoned hut. His hair was brown instead of the usual gold of Kirins, so there was no need to hide it under a hood. The fields were barren, ravaged by drought, and the people’s eyes were hollow and hopeless. 

 

_There was hope in their eyes, when the previous King ascended, yet here we are again._

 

He walks westward, riding on his Sirei when the ground was too saturated with blood and demons. He gathers food from the woods, and tries to ignore the sickness building in his body.  He is faint by the time he reaches what looks to be a town, and collapses into the dusty ground on the road. His Sirei are too weak to carry him now, and they hide themselves in his shadow in the presence of humans. 

He hears a voice drawl over him, “Oi. Who forgot to sweep the floor, why is this garbage lying in the middle of the road?” 

 

Something nudges him, a foot, he thinks. He hears some ill-tempered grumbling, and then he is picked up by strong, clean smelling arms. The world grows dark again.

 

* * *

 

When he awakens, he’s in a room. His clothes are changed, and he seems to have been wiped down, because the smell of blood seems to have faded a little from his body. There is a tightness in his chest, and it coincides with the faint sound of footsteps. 

 

“I see you’re awake, brat.” The drawl sends shivers of awareness up his spine. Eren’s eyes snap up to meet silver, and he _knows_. 

 

_This man is the King._

 

He is short, shorter than Eren, but despite his size he has a large presence, and it fills the room with the way he walks. The man approaches him, holding a bowl, and the words coming out of his mouth are harsh and rude, but the hands checking him over for injuries are gentle.

“Oi, shitty brat, are you dumb? Mute? Do you have a name?” 

“I’m Eren,” his voice is raspy from thirst, and the man hands him a bowl of water. It tastes sweet, and Eren belatedly realises that there must be sugar in there, to give him energy. He murmurs his thanks when he can’t drink anymore. Cool hands land on his forehead, and Eren wants to sigh and lean against the person he knows is King, but he refrains. 

 

“I’m Levi. You’re in ZiYou camp, home of the Freedom Rebellion,” the short man begins before muttering, “You’re running a fever. Are you sick? You better not have some filthy disease, boy.”

 

Eren startles and shakes his head, unsure how to explain that it’s blood that got him like this - sapping his powers till he was cold and weak. His heart sinks. The previous King was lawful and good, and even he went of the Way so easily. But this Levi is part of a Rebellion? Wouldn’t that be a sure-fire indication that he could bring the Kingdom on its knees far faster than anyone else?  

“Good. Get some rest, you can stay in my quarters for a while, the camp’s overcrowded these days. Get anything dirty and I’ll have your head.” With that, Levi steps out of the room, strides long and purposeful, and Eren can’t help but think that that’s the way a leader should move. He stops himself from thinking like that, reminding himself firmly that this Levi couldn’t possibly be a good person, not if he’s part of a rebellion.

 

* * *

 

The days pass, and Eren’s strength returns with some food and rest. He wanders out of the quarters, looking for Levi. The tug in his chest that leads him to his King eases when he rounds the corner, talking over a map with some other adults. Eren pauses, unsure of how to approach. A brown-haired person (he can’t tell whether they are female or male) looks up at him, smiles and beckons him over. 

 

“Hello! I’m Hanji! Aren’t you a cute one. Do you have business with the Corporal?” they asked.

 

Levi looks up, and Eren can’t quite suppress a shiver when silver eyes look up to meet his. “Well enough to walk already, brat?” 

 

Eren nods and approaches, catching sight of the map that’s spread out on the low table before them. 

 

“That’s Shun Province, isn’t it?” he asked tentatively. Three gazes snap up to look at him, and he shifts awkwardly. “I’m uh… familiar with it.” 

 

Their maps are outdated, and Eren is somehow roped into helping them, his memories of his time at court helping them fill in where rivers had shifted to. The Freedom Rebellion is sending troops out to maintain the levees, and Eren points out where the riverbanks are weak. He is surprised at their actions, surprised that a rebellion was doing things like river management. 

Levi sighs and explained that with no King, corruption in courts was at an all-time high. Nobody was maintaining the Kingdom, and everybody was persecuted for nary a reason. The Freedom Rebellion was a collection of people on the run, thieves and merchants and the homeless, and they were working to at least keep Shun Province afloat. But they were planning an attack - on the provincial lord of Shun, a corrupt and cruel man who was raising taxes and destroying the lives of the people in the province. They would attack the castle in two weeks, and Eren can smell blood and death on the horizon.

Eren now follows Levi around camp, watching him interact with his soldiers and men, eating with him, and sleeping on a cot in his quarters at night. The man ignores him for the most part, but Eren’s knowledge of the Kingdom comes in handy more often than not, and the silence between them is not uncomfortable. They hold quiet conversations, and Eren is surprised at the Corporal’s vulgar humour, and his allowance at Eren’s occasional cheekiness.

He admires the man, despite himself. But even so, he hears rumours of his past, a thief, a murderer, a crime lord. He sees flashes of truly devastating anger in those gunmetal eyes sometimes, and it scares Eren. Levi seems to notice this, and avoids the boy when he is in his black moods.

At night, his Sirei ask him if he will do anything about the King, and each night he clenches his jaw and shakes his head. Eren knows, knows that this man is the next King and he needs to make him King, but how can he? This man, this self-styled Corporal in his bastardised Army - this Levi - he’s a thief and murderer, how can he entrust the entire Kingdom to this small, angry man?

 But the demons and soldiers come, and the air in camp is rife with tension and malice. Even through the blood-sickness Eren can’t bring himself to leave, and he wonders if he fled Hohzan not because he didn’t want to be there, but because his King was here. 

 

* * *

 

On the day of the attack, they are betrayed, ambushed by the Kingsguard. The soldiers (still clinging to authority even when the throne sits empty) descend upon camp. Hanji finds him, hands him some money, tells him that Levi told him to run. He sees Hanji draw their sword and run toward the battle. Eren knows now that he cannot leave, even if he wanted to (he doesn’t want to). He runs towards Levi’s direction unerringly, drawn like a compass to North. 

Eren dashes around the corner, and sees the Corporal fighting with truly breathtaking speed, his face feral and body light with grace. Nonetheless, the numbers are against him, and it takes a few soldiers of the army to pin the smaller man down. Eren’s heart lurches at the sight of a sword held high above Levi’s head, and he calls out to his Sirei desperately to save his King.

The soldier gripping the sword above Levi's head suddenly crumples, blood spraying out in a grotesque arc as though the air itself had ripped into her. The others holding Levi go down the same way, and Levi is stunned as he stands amongst the cooling bodies. The other soldiers around them step away in horror, eyes wide with fear. 

 

“What witchcraft is this!? Men, seize him!” the captain of the Royal Army steps towards Levi, and Eren shouts out, voice stronger than it had been in months, “NO!”

 

Levi’s eyes widen as he notices Eren, frantically motioning for the brat to run away like he’d ordered him to, earlier when news of the ambush reached their ears.  Eren steps forward boldly to face the Army Captain, smoothly evading Levi’s aborted grab for his wrist. The Kingsgaurd captain sneers at the young hoodlum, drawing his sword and stepping forward.  But before he can speak, gold light shines at Eren’s forehead, and the air picks up a charge of energy that has the mounted demons and soldiers alike taking a step back. 

 

"You will stand down," Eren states, voice resonating with power, and some of the Kingsgaurd recognise just who they are talking to. "Taiho! F-forgive our impudence! But these traitors are planning to rebel against the throne!” they cry, dropping their weapons to bow. Eren’s sirei have been holding the nearest soldiers immobile, and they release their grips once the threat had been neutralised.

 

Eren sighs, soft and resigned, and mutters to himself, “There is no throne.” 

 

All this time, Levi has been gaping at the young brat that’s been following him around for the past few weeks. He knew that Eren was audacious when he forgot to be shy, but… The Kingsgaurd called the brat  _Taiho_? Surely that doesn’t mean that this young boy - brown haired and green-eyed (weren’t Kirin supposed to have golden hair, but he’d heard rumours that their own Kirin was special.?) - was the Kirin of their Kingdom? 

 

The boy turns to Levi, now, sadness and determination flickering in those green eyes that Levi has come to love - the urge to protect the boy had been ridiculous, and Levi wonders at his compulsion when he notices the boy has stopped near him. Despite his hatred of Kings, Eren cannot see this man die before him. And no matter what the reasons, only the executioner’s block awaits the captain of a rebellion. Eren thinks, his heart clenching painfully, that just maybe, Levi might make a good King.

 

The golden light that seems to have been radiating off the boy focuses, right at his forehead, and Eren’s form shifts, clothes slipping off the supple, deer-like body, the pelt a dark silvery brown, speckled with lighter flecks of a more golden hue. The sight is awe-inspiring, and Levi is stunned as he beholds the kirin bending low before him.

_It cannot be-_

Lower, lower, the kirin brought his forehead down, slowly and solemnly as the awestruck soldiers around them tried to comprehend the sight before them. A lone pearlescent horn lowered, and the boy’s wavering voice was heard.

 

_There is no other way._

_** "Never to leave your side…” ** _

 

_You are the King, I cannot deny that._

_**  “To follow your decree…” ** _

 

_You are a good captain, a kind man._

_** “to serve in utmost loyalty -“ ** _

 

_And I will keep you from stepping off the Way._  

The horn touched Levi’s boot, and with a shudder of awareness, Levi looked down to meet Eren’s green eyes.

 

_** "This is my pledge."  ** _

 

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted a 12 Kingdoms crossover fic, even though the worlds are so largely different, so I apologise if it's a bit jarring - I know that the SnK world and names are largely European, and 12 Kingdoms is so Chinese/Asian. I kept the place names as vague as possible, because I just wanted to write Eren denying and stubborn, but meeting this Levi and being drawn to him despite it all. And of course, kneeling and pledging his loyalty. 
> 
> Note: ZiYou is just a chinese pronounciation of 'freedom', because that's the best I can do. >_


End file.
